With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia | Page 8

five
hundred of the battalion had been killed or wounded. Other units
suffered with almost equal severity, the attack came to an inevitable
halt, there were no reserves to drive it home, consequently orders were
sent up from the Brigade that the infantry should dig themselves in
where they were. Nineteen officers and two-thirds of the men had been
hit: Colonel Wauchope was severely wounded by a shell and Major
Hamilton Johnstone took over command.
[Illustration: The Pipe Band.]
[Illustration: Corporal McLEOD.]
[Illustration: The Pipe Band.]
[Illustration: Our Left Flank At San-i-yat, The Tigris.]
[Illustration: Capt. HALDANE Inspects The Hannah Trenches.]
[Illustration: At Mohammerah.]
But if our losses were heavy and the sufferings great, the Turk had also
suffered so heavily at our hands, that he was forced to evacuate his
position on the following day, and we occupied it on the 9th. The

situation was one of extreme difficulty for the new Commanding
officer. If there were few men left there were still fewer officers or
sergeants remaining with much experience. Yet the Turks were close to
our trenches and re-organisation of the depleted platoons imperative.
But his indomitable spirit and the determination within the regiment, so
often shown at times of crisis, made the hardest tasks possible. The
wounded were brought back, the dead buried; rations were got forward
and the trenches securely held. New leaders were appointed, and on
January 10th when the Brigade moved forward from Sheikh-Saad the
Battalion had been reformed under its well-loved commander, ready as
always to do whatever duty lay before.
Progress was made up the river bank slowly, but always in the direction
of Kut, the aim and object of our every march and fight at this period.
The enemy had retreated some miles and, on January 13th, they were
attacked and driven out of their position on the Wadi, the 2nd Battalion
playing a small but successful part in this action and losing 34 men.
The Turks then fell back on to a more strongly entrenched position at
Hannah.
The rainy season was now in full swing. It rained day after day and the
whole country became sodden, making it very difficult to move troops
and almost impossible to move artillery. The discomfort the men
suffered is almost indescribable, with no tents and everyone chronically
wet to the skin and unable to have properly cooked food, made a
seemingly hopeless position; but it is wonderful how hardship and
discomforts are forgotten at the thought of beleaguered comrades in
need of help and, as the country dried up and the sun shone forth, the
men's spirits rose. On the eighteenth the 2nd Battalion had orders again
to move forward. They did so and occupied a line of trenches about two
thousand yards off the enemy, who were strongly entrenched in what is
now known as the Hannah position. The whole country here, it must be
understood, is absolutely flat, only in the distance twenty or thirty miles
away one could see the snow-clad Pusht-i-kuh Mountains. Each night
short advances were made and fresh trenches dug, till the night of the
20th. In this manner an advance was made up to within two hundred
and fifty yards of the enemy's position. There, under cover of darkness

the last line of trenches were dug and the companies deployed into two
lines, and there they faced the enemy and awaited dawn. The Battalion
and our old friends, the Jats, had been lent to another Brigade detailed
to make the decisive assault on the morning of the 21st. Major
Hamilton Johnston had made every possible arrangement for a
successful assault and the leading lines were well within striking
distance of the enemy. But however brilliantly carried out an assault
may be, however gallant and determined the men, to ensure a lasting
success against a determined foe there must be weight as well as depth
in the attack. Now on the night of the 20th, owing to the movement
among the troops, lack of reconnaissance and the mud, the troops in
rear of the two leading battalions were deployed so far back, that
though they moved forward in the morning simultaneously with the
Jats and Highlanders, they suffered such losses on their way that none
were able to reach the enemy trenches. And dire was our need there for
support.
At a given signal our artillery opened a light bombardment of seven
minutes, then the long awaited and thrilling order to assault was given.
The companies made a magnificent response and all rushed forward,
crossed the muddy water-logged No Man's Land with their left 200 or
300 yards from the river, and gained the objective, though not without
losses. No pause had been made for firing for the bayonet was the
weapon our men trusted. More and more